One-way bus ride worthy of Saskatchewan election debate

Charles Neil Curly boarding a bus that will take him to Victoria, B.C. He and Jeremy Roy were given one-way tickets to B.C. by the Saskatchewan government this week. Both men are homeless.Averil Hall - McPhedran Phocus

About the time Premier Brad Wall was extolling the virtues of Saskatchewan’s compassion this week, two young homeless men — one struggling with mental health concerns — were on a one-way bus ride to B.C., courtesy of the provincial government.

Yes, Wall was right when he told delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention that they were blessed to live in a place where values have not changed.

And, yes, politicians might not be responsible for deporting two homeless men to B.C if (and let us stress “if”) this was simply a case of a frontline worker abandoning protocol.

But given the near certainty that this isn’t solely about a social worker screwing up, can anyone deny that something went very wrong here? Can anyone honestly say that the plight of these two individuals isn’t precisely the very thing we need to debate in the 2016 provincial election campaign?

Evidently, Brad Wall can.

Asked about the situation of the two men after his inspiring words about Saskatchewan’s generosity and kindness at the SARM convention, Wall said he just didn’t want to make this a political issue.

Of course he wouldn’t. Would any politician going to the electorate 25 days from now want to talk about what’s quickly become a national embarrassment to not only himself and his party, but also the entire province?

About the only puzzling political question is why the NDP — a party polling 15 to 20 percentage points behind and in desperate need of any issue catching fire in the first week of this campaign — isn’t hammering the Saskatchewan Party on this story.

Unless your only concern is that the two men enjoyed a smooth bus ride to B.C., you must see that issues touching on poverty, homelessness, employment and mental health surely have as much value as Wall’s announcement Thursday to spend $70 million more a year on road repairs.

But Wall’s response was one of heartfelt compassion compared with much of what we heard from Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer.

In her first prepared statement Wednesday, Harpauer said she would check with the social worker’s superiors to see if longstanding policy, dating back to the former NDP government, had been properly followed. That policy was normally used when someone needs to return to their home province or to be reunited with family .

One of the men had been living in B.C. The other man, who is struggling with mental health problems, is from a local First Nation and had never been out of the province.

So after eight and a half years of governing — including the most prosperous period in Saskatchewan history — the best she’s got is to blame the former NDP administration? With more media pressure brought to bear, Harpauer issued a second statement Thursday adding the policy might have to be reviewed to ensure it was compassionate.

Or perhaps she could have talked to frontline workers long ago.

Caitlin Glencross, manager of the Lighthouse shelter in North Battleford, said she was thrown “for a loop” by the unprecedented decision to ship a local man to B.C.

That the man didn’t know where he was going or where he would get his medication once he got there should be as troubling to Wall and Harpauer as it is to the rest of us.

But what Harpauer didn’t mention in either of her statements is the Social Services Ministry’s November crackdown on emergency shelter per diems — no doubt a casualty of a deficit-plagued 2015-16 budget.

Yet we have no 2016-17 budget proposal to see how a re-elected Sask. Party government plans to address such issues?

The day before his government shelled out $500 for the one-way bus tickets to B.C. for the two men, Wall called an election to the tune of his new rockin’ country campaign theme song by Andy Grammer, called Back home.

“It don’t matter where we go, we always find our way back home,” go the lyrics.

Sadly for some, back home means a Greyhound Bus to a place they’ve never been before.

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